Metallurgical furnace.



U. WEDGE. METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 19, 1912.

1,094,953. I Pat nted Apr.28,1914.

Z SHEET8-SHEET 1.

D INVENTOR UTLEY WEDGE I BY HIS ATTORNEY m, 2694' M U. WEDGE. METALLUBGIGAL FURNACE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 19, 1912.

L@94 53 v Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

2 SHEETSSHBET 2.

wrmEssE \NVENTOR Z W UTLEY WE E; v BY ns ATTORNEY urns earn i UTLEY WEDGE, OF ARIDMOR-E, PENNSYLVANIA.

ostess.

Specification of Letters Patent.

METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

Patented Apr. 218, 191%.

Application filed June 19, 1912. Serial No. 704,526.

which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that type of metallurgical furnaces which. have a series of superposed working chambers and a central shaft carrying rabble arms disposed in different working chambers of the series, said rabble arms being cooled by the circulation through the same of a cooling fluid (hereinafter. for convenience, referred to as air The object of my invention is to utilize, in one portion of the furnace, the heat absorbed by the air in the performance of its cooling function in the rabble arms in another portion of the furnace. This object I attain in the manner hereinafter set forth, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical sectional View of suiiicient ofa metallurgical furnace of the type to which my invention relates, to illustrate the application of my invention there-- to; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan on the line a--a, Fig. 1, and on a somewhat larger scale than the latter figure; Fig. 3 is a transall verse vertical section on the line 25-42, Fig. 2; Fig. i is a horizontal section of part of the central shaft and one of its rabble arms, also on a. larger scale than Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional View, illustrating another. embodiment of my invention.

in Fig. 1 of the drawing, 1 have illustrated my invention as applied to a furnace having seven chambers, numbered consecutively, from top to bottom, and communieating with. each other through passages 8 so that the material tobe-treated may be fed through the furnace from top ;'to bottom. The number ofchambers contained in the furnace may, however, vary without defeat-1 ing the purpose of my invention. The furnace is provided with the usual central r0- tatable shaft 9 carrying, in each of the working chambers of the furnace, a series of rabble arms. In the present instance I have not shown these arms as equipped with rabbles, as the presence of the latter would not aid in a proper understanding}; of my 1nvcntron. Each of the rabble arms 10 in each of the chambers 1 to 5, inclusive, has a central partition extending from the inner end of the same almost to the outer end so as to form, within the rabble arm, an air circa-lat ing passage 11 (Fig. 4) which communicates at one end with the interiorof the central shaft 9 and at the other end with a pipe 12 connected to a portion of the rabble arm which projects into the shaft 9 as shown in Fig. 1, so that, supposing that air under pressure is admitted to the interior of the central shaft 9. such air will find its way through the circulating passage 11 in each of the rabble arms 10 and willcscape' therefrom through the corresponding pipe The rabble arms 13 in the lower chambers 6 and 7 of the furnace are tubular and perforated in theirlower sides, as shown in Fig. 1, and that portion of each of these rabble arms which. projects into the shaft 5 communicates with a pipe 14;. In the shaft 9 is a manifold 15 supported upon brackets 16 or in. any other suitable way, and with this manifold communicate the pipes 12 of a number of rabble arms 10 and the pipes 14 of the rabble arms 13, as shown in 1. Air heated by its passage through the rabble arms 10 in the chambers 2. 3, and 5 of the furnace will therefore be conducted through the pipes 12, manifold 15 and pipes 14 into the rabble arms 13 in the lower chambers 6 and 7 of the furnace, and. will be delivered from the letter arms thrcrgb. the perforations therein to aid in heating the lower chambers of the furnace or in maintaining combustion therein. In the furnace shown in Fig. 1 the pipes 12 from the rabble arms in the uppermost chamber 1 of the furnace discharge through the top of the shaft 9, but this is optional.

It is not essential to the proper carrying out of my invention that air under-pressure should be maintained in the shaft 9 and di rectly enter the rabble arms from said shaft, in fact, this method may be considered ohj'ectionable in some cases because it involves the closing of the ends of the shaft and prevents that free access thereto which is one of the main reasons for making the shaft of large diameter. In such cases TI locate a manifold 16 at the top of the shaft which communicates by depending pipes 17 with the inlet ends of the rabble arms, air being thus supplied to the latter through this manifold and its branch-pipes, so that the shaft may be open at the top or at both ends in order to permit ready access thereto at all times.

The upper manifold preferably communi rates by means of converging pipes 18 with a central pipe 19, and the latter communicates through aproperly luted joint 20 with the fixed air supplying pipe 21, so that the proper supply of ir may be conveyed without leakage to the rotating manifold 16. The system of pipe connections for conveying the heated air from the rabble arms in the upper chambers to the rabble arms in the lower chambers maybe modified, as desired although I have found the construction shown in the drawing to have been effective in practice. YChen it is desired to control the flow of air into or from the rabble arms, or any of them, such control may be effected by providing the air supply or discharge pipes or both with'suitable valves.

While I prefer to introduce the heated air into the lower working chambers of the furnace through the hollow rabble arms 13, the introduction of the air in this way to these ehambers is not essential to the proper carrymg out of my invention, nor is it necessary to introduce the heated air into a plurality of working chambers, and although I prefer to heat the air by, conveying it through the rabble arms of a plurality of chambers of the furnace, the air may be heated .in the rabble arms of but a single chamber if desired.

I claim: y

l. The combination, in a metallurgicalfurnace, of a series of superposed working chambers,a central shaft having rabble arms disposed in said chambers, means for circulating air through said rabble arms for cooling purposes, a manifold in the central shaft, pipe connections between said manifold and said rabble arms, and means for conveying the air from said manifold to a chamber or chambers of the series.

2. The combination, in a metallurgical furnace, of a series of superposed working chambers, a central shaft having rabble arms disposed in said chambers, means for circulating air through some of the rabble arms for cooling purposes, means for discharging air from other rabble arms, a mani fold in the central shaft, and pipe connectionsbetwecn said manifold and said rabble arms.

3. The combination, in a metallurgical furnace, of a series of superposed working chambers, a central shaft having rabble arms disposed in a series of said chambers, an air supplying and an air receiving manifold carried by said shaft, and b anchcs connectin'g said manifolds with air circulating passages in the rubble arms.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

UTLEY \VEDGE. Witnesses.

KATE A. BnAnLn, HAMILTON D. TURNER. 

